But stranger far, and more profound

Verse 1
But stranger far, and more profound
That first abasement of our God,
When with eternal glory crown’d
A Man to men himself he shew’d!
He laid his dazling robes aside,
His greatness and majestic grace,
And pleas’d with sinners to abide,
Put on our nature’s sordid dress.

Verse 2
Jehovah in our form appears
With frail humanity endued,
Washes his servants in his tears,
And purifies us by his blood;
Our souls immerst in guilt and clay
Are by his sacred flesh made clean,
He wipes our earthly minds away,
And all the filth of inbred sin.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash his disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.’—[John 13,] v. 4, 5." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/573, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 500.
Publishing: Public Domain